Tonight a team of 5 took on a very relaxing 4km run up the River Rea Valley Path picking up litter. We managed one full bag and the path looking lovely.

Big kudos to Rich, James and Laura, fresh from their successes in the Birmingham 10K and Half Marathon!

Tonight we tried a new session out on the cinder track at Rowheath in the sunshine. The advantage of this is that you're never more than 400m away from anyone so noone is left behind!

The interval workout builds speed endurance and increases and improves lactate tolerance. It is ideal for runners training for 5K to half-marathon distances. Good news for Laura who is doing the Birmingham Half Marathon in May.

We did 8-10 x 400m workout. Typically run at 5K race pace with short rest of 60 seconds, it improves running economy, mental toughness, and cardiovascular efficiency.

Well done to Laura and Morwenna for completing 8 lots of 400m 💪🏼💪🏼 not an easy feat in the windy conditions but they smashed it!

We had a lovely run for our traditional loop round the Bournville area, culminating at the famous tree!! Laura, Morwenna, Eve, Rich, Abigail and Veronika joined me on the run- with everyone else meeting in the pub afterwards for a Christmas bev and also to say goodbye to my gallbladder which will hopefully be removed tomorrow!

Thanks all for a fab send off!

Before the GoodGym Christmas social, 5 eager GGers headed to the Good Intent to pick up litter pickers and complete a 20 minute litter pick in the city centre. 2 bags full was good work and a well deserved social afterwards.

On a bitterly cold night in Stirchley, we split into teams and set off to deliver 400 leaflets, and despite the freezing fingers, spirits stayed high as we covered street after street.

Once every leaflet had found its letterbox, we regrouped for a 4k run to warm up again (or at least try to!).

Huge praise to Sophie, who hadn’t run in ages but absolutely smashed a hilly route. Big thanks to Amy for bringing the leaflets and keeping everything brilliantly organised.

A chilly night, a lot of leaflets, a solid run, and an excellent team effort all round.

Tonight we attempted some spooky "stravart" - I had mapped out a run inspired by the Stirchley Skull but as it fell a bit short I drew out a ghosty instead! However as you can see from the expectations vs reality photo we did miss an eye out. Still a lovely run and it was fun to run round in a big circle!

Making the most of the daylight, Rich and Miriam did a 7k run to the mission where we were met with Laura who had cycled 10k from work. The real work out then when we met Amy and began leafleting ~300 houses to inform them about the market!

The fab four then enjoyed a drink and a catch up in the pub afterwards.

Our wonderful Amy is taking on more responsibility at the Stirchley Community Market and so she led us all in a team building task setting up a market stall to see how many pieces we had!!

Laura and Sofeen had put up the stall before so quickly took to assembling the pieces and showing us what to do. It felt like an escape room or crystal maze puzzle!! With Laura's memory and a sort of helpful photo Amy had - we managed to get it together! Abigail and Chris were excellent organisers, getting the pieces ready and coming up with solutions.

The hardest part of the day was putting the heavy metal pieces back quietly while a class was in session in the community centre! We also kept having the door closed on us. Quite the team building experience.

Srinivas joined us in Stirchley for the first time and did amazingly on our 3k run. Hope to see you again!!

Shout out to Veronika who cycled to the mission and then did a run with us! Duathlon vibes.

This evening we met with Amy who gave us lots of lovely fliers to deliver round the Stirch streetz. A massive welcome to our new member Abigail, who joined us from Bristol! We hope to have you back soon!

After a good 45 mins of leafletting we went on a 4k run on the river rea with Laura cycling alongside and Chris taking the opportunity for a walk.

All in all a great time with some much needed refreshments in the pub afterwards!

Three GoodGym volunteers (Amy, Morwenna and Laura) helped set up the Stirchley Community Spring Market.

We helping bring down items from storage in the old swimming bath lockers and put up bunting outside.

The weather held up and it was a lovely day!